'Legal' Pirate Bay deal on the rocks

Potential buyers' shares suspended, Swedish Government suspicious

Shares

The potential buyer of controversial file-sharing site The Pirate Bay has hit stormy waters, with shares of Global Gaming Factory suspended this week.

Global Gaming Factory has offered 60m kronor for The Pirate Bay and the Swedish stock market is now investigating whether Global Gaming realistically has enough cash to go through with the 60m kronor (£4.7m) sale.

GGF's Chief Executive Hans Pandeya remains adamant that the acquisition of The Pirate Bay will go ahead later this week on 27 August as planned.

Copyright schmopiright

The Pirate Bay hit the headlines earlier this spring when its founders were sentenced to a year in jail and fined a total of £2.2m in damages for breaching copyright law.

Pandeya told the BBC: "The Aktietorget - the Swedish stock market - said they wanted more information on investors, which we said we would release after the acquisition.

"There are risks and possible lawsuits, and this makes people nervous. None [of the investors] want to give out their details, otherwise the media will attack them."

Pay the distributors

Should the deal go through the 'all-new' Pirate Bay will host legal content, paying both copyright holders and file sharers for helping to distribute copyrighted works.

Mr Pandeya added that: "You are not supposed to buy an illegal site…This is out-of-the-box thinking. Because it is unconventional it is viewed with uncertainty by Swedish culture, even if I don't view it that way.

"Because of that, they want details and 100 per cent assurances, but in business that is not always something you can get," he said.